


Because of course.

by humansandotherpeople



Series: Gem and Sherlock [4]
Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, Gore, Rule 63, Valentine's Day, not a lot of gore but I wanted to put fluff and gore next to each other in the tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-18
Updated: 2014-02-18
Packaged: 2018-01-12 23:46:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,178
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1204969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/humansandotherpeople/pseuds/humansandotherpeople
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That awkward moment when your girlfriend sends you exactly the same gift for Valentine's Day that you got for her, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Because of course.

**Author's Note:**

> This doesn't have much to do with the rest of the series, other than that it takes place in the same universe, but it kind of fits in after With the Lights Out.

Gem nearly tripped over a small package on stepping out of her hotel suite on the morning of the 14th of February. It was wrapped in pink paper and bound with a white ribbon.

 _Sherlock?_   Could it be? No, no, pink wasn't Sherlock's _thing,_ Valentine's Day wasn't Sherlock's thing, and anyway, it would be a bit much to assume that she had managed to find her again, so soon, and when she had been so diligent in the last time... What else, then? Who could even know she was here? It might be courtesy of the hotel, come with the suite and the date. That had to be the best case scenario. It might be Mycroft, having found her out, having found _them_ out, and using the holiday as a cover to warn Gem off her little sister. It couldn't be anything more serious, if it was Mycroft and if she knew: She wouldn't go and break Sherlock's little heart by killing her girlfriend, no matter how disagreeable.

If it was, indeed, something dangerous, the most likely perpetrators – or enablers for outside perpetrators - would be dissatisfied employees, although she was very certain that those should all be too thoroughly scared to try anything. She prodded the package with her foot. No explosion. No, she didn't think so. She picked it up. Looked up and down the corridor. Nobody. Now, if she had spotted anybody she might have got them to open the present under some pretence, but, well... If it was poison, Sherly would get a whole new case for Valentine's, and what a big one that would be.

Gem retreated into her suite with the mystery present. She let herself fall back into the cushions of the sofa and turned the package in her hands, feeling a lump of weight shifting around in a container inside it. Whatever it was made a soft thud sound when it hit the walls of the box. Inspecting it gave her very little but a faint echo of Sherlock's voice inside her head. She apparently actually wished Sherlock was there to rattle down observation after observation about where the paper was manufactured and what kind of person tied a bow like that. Great, that's how far gone she was.

As a last test she sniffed the package. Oh no. Blood. A very slight hint of nausea made itself known in her stomach. Not the hotel's treat, then. Better get this over with quickly. She ripped ribbon and paper away, dropping them on the floor carelessly, to reveal an opaque plastic box. Just see-through enough to make the dark red of its contents visible. The nausea spread. She hadn't had any breakfast yet, so that was good, she told herself. She braced herelf as well as she could with this little time and a situation that was not under her control, and lifted the lid.

It was a heart because _of course it was a fucking human fucking heart what had she even been expecting?_ She closed the lid quickly before the smell could turn her stomach even more and placed the plastic box on the coffee table, as far away from her as possible without standing up. She blinked a few times, but couldn't get the image of ventricles and membranes, glistening wetly, out of her head.

She pulled her phone out and dialled Sherlock almost without thinking. If she could hear her voice that had to mean it could not possibly be her heart ( _and wouldn't that be just_ so _ironic in at least a dozen ways?_ ) in there, smearing the walls of its plastic confinement blood red.

She breathed a deep sigh of relief when Sherlock finally picked up.

"What is it, Gem? You know I don't like to be called. And it's _morning._ " Sherlock's tone was anything but affectionate, the annoyance in it was entirely genuine, the phone made it all sound a bit tinny and distant, and Gem couldn't imagine hearing anything more lovely.

"But you _are_ awake already, love." Her own voice went soft around her words and she couldn't do anything against it.

"Still", Sherlock corrected. "Is this about the note?"

"What note?"

"The note I sent along with the heart", Sherlock said, losing her patience audibly.

"Ah yes, the heart. You didn't kill anyone I _liked_ for that, did you?" Gem pressed the phone to her ear with her shoulder while she bent down to raffle through the discarded wrapping paper.

"No. I compromised the integrity of a crime scene, though. I doubt the one _you_ sent me has such a harmless, nonviolent backstory. But I'm on to that, obviously."

Sherlock's "it's not too easy" and her "thank you" were completely drowned out by a wave of emotion, because Gem had found a post-it note in the paper that must have come off while she unwrapped the packet and it plainly stated "I love you" in Sherlock's unpracticed handwriting.

That really should not be affecting her the way it did. Depending on how one looked at these things, it was either a blatant _lie_ or had already been obvious when it had been left unsaid. But...

She stroked over the letters reverently. "Sorry. You were saying?"

"The least you could do, if you have to call me, is not get distracted. I was thanking you for the challenge", Sherlock said briskly.

Gem read it again. Glanced at the plastic box on the coffee table. Shook her head slightly. Read it again. Closed her eyes.

"I love you too", she said. She was painfully aware that she was nearly cooing the words.

"So it _was_ about the note, then", Sherlock said smugly. "Anything else you wanted to say?"

"Oooooh." Gem half cringed, half grinned when something clicked into place in her mind. "One confession at a time not enough for you?"

"Just say it."

"Alright, alright. No more body parts, please?"

"Why?"

Gem rolled her eyes. "Because I, Gem Moriarty, am a great big wuss, and I can order fifty murders a day without remorse, but show me the results of one of them and I go all green in the face. There, satisfied?"

"Maybe." Gem could hear the self-satisfied grin through the phone. "Tell me the other one again."

"Pushing it, Sherlock."

"Even if I say it first?"

"You'd have to try", Gem replied dryly. She didn't really expect her to say it, on paper maybe, but out loud was something different alltogether...

"I love you."

Oh god.

"I love you too, Sherlock", Gem whispered.

"Excellent. I expect I'll be seeing you as soon as I've solved the case of the gift heart?"

Gem smiled. "You're stealing Watson's style. And that would be telling."

"Till then, then."

"Don't forget to get some sleep!", Gem managed to get in before Sherlock hung up. The smile just wouldn't leave her face, despite the unpleasant task of disposing of a human heart that she would have to face soon.

She read the note again, and this time she heard it in Sherlock's voice.

 

She loved her.

**Author's Note:**

> There were several posts going around on tumblr on Valentine's Day about Jim giving Sherlock a human heart, there's also artwork of that, and there's at least one fic in which Sherlock gives Jim a heart, but none of these had quite the tone I'd imagine for such an exchange, sooo...


End file.
